Autopsies miscaked deaths in police custody that were murders, say officials from Maryland – NBC4 Washington

A test by Maryland Autopsies has taken at least 36 deaths in police custody, which must be regarded as murder, state officials announced on Thursday after a comprehensive review of such cases that were tense by widespread concerns about the testimony of the former medical examiner in the death of George Floyd by the former state medical examiner.

According to the review, the medical examiners under Dr. David Fowler racist and police prejudices. It was “particularly unlikely that they would classify a death as a murder when the deceased was black, or if they died of the police after the restriction,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown during a press conference.

“These results have profound effects on our judicial system,” said Brown. “They speak more for systemic problems than for individual behavior.”

The auditors checked 87 deaths in customers after medical experts questioned Fowler's work because he said that the police were not responsible for Floyd's death. The Maryland team focused on cases in which people suddenly died after the police often held back by the police.

Three-person panels rated each autopsy and unanimously came to the conclusion in 36 cases that death should be classified as murders, but not. In five other cases, two of the three experts came to this conclusion.

Fowler did not immediately respond to messages looking for a comment.

State officials were able to reopen death investigations

The democratic governor Wes Moore said that he had signed an executive regulation in which Brown checked the 41 cases and determined whether something should be reopened for investigations.

Moore admitted the families, whose relatives died in police custody, some of whom shouted on this type of analysis – and were met with silence. He also recognized the many members of the law enforcement authorities who honor their work and protect the public.

Moore said he also created a nationwide task force to examine the death of people who were held back in the law enforcement agency. He said the state would not be afraid to eradicate misconduct and work on creating a fairer judicial system.

In the list of recommendations, the review suggested better training for law enforcement officers on the dangers of false back hooking techniques. The office of Chief Medical Examiner also instructed standardized procedures for investigating deaths in connection with reluctance.

The governor described the review as the first of his kind in the nation and hopes that he will provide a model for similar studies elsewhere.

In a national investigation published last year, the Associated Press and their reporting partners found that medical examiners and forensic doctors, whose decisions have enormous consequences in the courts, can be under pressure from the law enforcement authorities. Some medical officers did not rely on their decisions on physical evidence, but when asked whether they believed that the police intended to kill.

If deaths are decided by accident, the persecution of civil servants are extremely rare – of 443 cases that were decided by chance, only two led to criminal charges. The chances of a family to gain an illegal complaint is also much tougher.

While the test results are worrying, officials from Maryland said that they did not propose intentional or malicious behavior. They emphasized that murder classification simply means that someone has died due to the action of another person, not necessarily that the officials involved should be pursued by criminal law.

Fowler was criticized because he had accepted a widely rejected theory

Fowler, who testified to the defense against the former police officer of Minneapolis in 2021 against the former police officer, Derek, led Floyd's death back to a sudden heart rhythm disorder due to his heart disease – a widely rejected theory that did little to convince the jury. Chauvin was ultimately convicted of murder and homicide because he knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine than nine.

According to his conviction, 400 medical experts signed a letter to the Attorney General of Maryland, in which Fowler's testimony deviates outside the limits of accepted forensic practice. In addition to citing heart problems, he classified the type of death as “indefinite” rather than “murder”.

In the letter, an investigation was presented to determine whether the office decision of the office has a certain bias among other things.

Officials said on Thursday that their audit had found a disturbing systemic pattern.

Almost half of the cases reviewed cited “lively delirium” as the cause of death, a diagnosis that has been exposed by medical experts in recent years. Critics say that it was often used to justify excessive violence by the police. The report recommended that medical examiners no longer use.

From 2002 to 2019, Fowler was the chief searcher of Maryland.

Two top -class deaths are among the 41 cases that have been highlighted

In 2023, state officials approved a comparison agreement in which the procedure for carrying out autopsies for people in police custody was reformed.

This change came to the death of Anton Black 2018, which died in police custody on the east coast in Maryland. His death was captured on video, in which the police in rural Greensboro held the unarmed teenager for more than six minutes. Fowler decided that Black had died because of a sudden heart event when he had to struggle with the police – not because they held him in a susceptible position. His death was declared an accident.

In a similar way, Fowler decided that Tyrone West died of natural reasons after a traffic stop in 2013. Witnesses and the officials themselves said that there was a violent struggle between the officials and Western. According to autopsy, his type of death was indefinite.

Both black and west have now been included in the list of cases that are to be searched for according to murder.

TaWanda Jones, West's sister, who organized a weekly rallies for 616 weeks to emphasize his case, said she had the feeling that something positive came from the investigation. “You are finally listening to me now,” said Jones. “It feels good that they finally listen.”

Fowler's term also included Freddie Gray's death 10 years ago. The autopsy came to the conclusion that Gray died of a spine injuries that had suffered in a police car in Baltimore during the transport. It also classified his death as a murder because the officials repeatedly failed to look for medical help while he was in trouble. The public prosecutor filed for six officers, but none were convicted.